The Bank of Israel is looking to issue a digitalcurrency to perform a faster payments system as well as reduce the country's reliance on cash, according to an anonymous source that spoke to Reuters. However, the project has not been achieved yet.

If the central bank provides the plan a green light, the country's government is ready to include it in its 2019 budget.

This national cryptocurrency would be very different from Bitcoin, however. Reuters' source claims it would be centralized, safe and by Israel's money laundering rules. Bitcoin, in contrast, is decentralized and anonymous.

Jerusalem Post has a tiny bit more detail on how this national cryptocurrency could work. “You can imagine that instead of giving you a piece of paper saying the Bank of Israel on it, I can send you a piece of digital code that was issued by a central bank,” a source told the outlet.

While Israel might be interested in cryptocurrencies, it's not very benevolent toward the coin that started the crypto-craze — Bitcoin. Yesterday, CNBC summarized that Israel is looking to ban companies based on Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies from trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.

Israel is not the first country that's exploring the chance of launching a cryptocurrency or using blockchain technology in some way. In August, Estonia announced it's planning to start its cryptocoin, called Estcoin, through an ICO (initial coin offering), and China and Singapore have been testing their digitalcurrency systems for a while now.

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